274 THE DARWINIAN THEORY. 
they imagine a creative intelligence in matter—intelligence créatrice 
matter modifying itself by an unconscious act of the will.* 
Lamarck, who taught that matter was constantly producing forms 
of life by spontaneous generation, could, by this supposition, account 
for the co-existence of innumerable organic beings, both of the lowest 
and the most advanced forms; for the advanced organizations had 
commenced their destiny of transmutations in a remote antiquity from 
spontaneous generation; but the lower forms were of more modern 
date, and as nature was always producing new life, it was no wonder 
that vast multitudes of beings were still in a low grade, having yet to 
ascend in the scale of progressive organization. Mr. Darwin, however, 
has no way of surmounting this difficulty but by asking us “ how we 
know it would be of any advantage for the lower forms to be pro- 
moted,” which is, in fact, making his system nugatory for the mere 
purpose of answering a hard question. If it be of no advantage for 
low organisms to be promoted, then that settles the question of these 
“favourable variations,” by which he assures us every low animal has 
been actively advanced. This is one of those numerous contradictions 
for which his system is remarkable. 
Here, again, it will be instructive to hear the Transmutationists 
rebuking the leader of their school— 
“Mr. Darwin supposes that an animal brings with it into the world 
by accident (par hasard) some physiological modification or some 
anatomical disposition, which are individually advantageous for it in 
the great struggle of life. With this advantage, it will henceforward 
have a chance amongst the strongest (les vaingueurs) to unite itself 
with another animal which from its birth has been equally endowed 
with qualities enabling it to come off victorious. They will together 
leave a numerous posterity, and there is every chance that the descen- 
dants of such a couple should inherit the same instinctive disposition 
or the same conformation ; and, at last, by the repeated action of this 
natural proceeding, a new variety may be formed, and so supplant the 
parent species, or co-exist with it. Such, in a few words, is the 
theory of natural selection. In our opinion it is a false interpretation 
* hoes FS 
QM ts, professed by many millions of the human race, are of an 
antiquity beyond the reach of investigation. The whole is well condensed in 
one of Virgil's beautiful lines, —* Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore 
miscet" Spontaneous generation, thus interpreted, is matter transforming 
itself by an inherent divine force. 
